For decision

Title: 2023/0406/DET — Erec­tion of ware­house build­ing (Class 6), form­a­tion of access track, park­ing area, and asso­ci­ated works at Land 130 Metres South East of House of Bru­ar, Pit­agow­an, Blair Atholl, Pit­lo­chry, PH18 5TW — Pro­posed Plan­ning Conditions

Pre­pared by: Katie Crerar (Plan­ning Officer)

Pur­pose

This paper recom­mends a suite of plan­ning con­di­tions to be attached to the above plan­ning applic­a­tion for a ware­house build­ing at the House of Bru­ar, which the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee resolved to approve in prin­ciple on 25 April 2025. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee is asked to approve the recom­men­ded con­di­tions and author­ise the applic­a­tion to be referred to Scot­tish Min­is­ters under the terms of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Noti­fic­a­tion of Applic­a­tions) (Scot­land) Dir­ec­tion 2009.

Recom­mend­a­tion

The Com­mit­tee is asked to:

a) Approve the con­di­tions set out in this paper to be attached to plan­ning applic­a­tion 2023/0406/DET; and b) Author­ise the applic­a­tion to be referred to Scot­tish Min­is­ters under the terms of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Noti­fic­a­tion of Applic­a­tions) (Scot­land) Dir­ec­tion 2009.

Back­ground

1. Plan­ning applic­a­tion 2023/0406/DET was presen­ted to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 25 April 2025, seek­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion for the erec­tion of a ware­house build­ing (Class 6) to sup­port the oper­a­tions of the House of Bru­ar retail busi­ness along with asso­ci­ated access track, park­ing area and oth­er asso­ci­ated works (see Com­mit­tee Report in Appendix 1).

2. The applic­a­tion was recom­men­ded for refus­al due to the devel­op­ment site being at risk from flood­ing, as demon­strated in the applicant’s Flood Risk Assess­ment. Both SEPA and Perth and Kinross Council’s Flood Team objec­ted to the pro­posed devel­op­ment on the basis that it does not meet any of the excep­tion cri­ter­ia set out in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 (NPF4) Policy 22 a).

3. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee con­sidered that whilst the applic­a­tion does not com­ply fully with the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of NPF4 Policy 22, it can when tak­ing account of the pro­posed mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. They con­sidered that it is a strong applic­a­tion and com­plies with a lot of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and oth­er policies con­tained in NPF4 and that, when assessed over­all, the applic­a­tion com­plies with the devel­op­ment plan as a whole. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee there­fore agreed to an amend­ment to approve the applic­a­tion in prin­ciple, sub­ject to a full suite of con­di­tions com­ing for­ward at the next Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meeting.

4. The pur­pose of this paper is to set out a suite of recom­men­ded con­di­tions for the Committee’s approv­al pri­or to the applic­a­tion being referred to Scot­tish Min­is­ters on account of SEPA’s out­stand­ing objec­tion on flood risk grounds.

Con­sulta­tions

1. Fol­low­ing the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing on 25 April, SEPA and Perth and Kinross Council’s Flood Team were con­sul­ted on pro­posed con­di­tions to address flood risk if the applic­a­tion were to be approved. SEPA stated that ​“as we have objec­ted in prin­ciple, and in regard to our remit as a stat­utory con­sul­tee, we do not con­sider our objec­tion in prin­ciple can be over­come by mat­ters being addressed by plan­ning con­di­tion and as such have no sug­ges­ted con­di­tions”. How­ever, they provided the fol­low­ing advice:

“If plan­ning con­sent is gran­ted and the devel­op­ment built, it is import­ant that the devel­op­ment does not dis­place flood­wa­ter and increase flood risk to oth­er recept­ors. Giv­en this, we con­sider the pro­pos­al to stilt the devel­op­ment would there­fore be the most appro­pri­ate option, as long as the under­side of the build­ing is at a level of at least 147.7m (flood level + 0.3m free­board) as recom­men­ded by the FRA. In addi­tion to this, we would also recom­mend that it is ensured that there is dry access and egress from the build­ing to out­with the flood risk area”.

1. Perth and Kinross Coun­cil pro­posed three con­di­tions which incor­por­ate the above advice provided by SEPA, and these are included with­in the suite of recom­men­ded con­di­tions set out below (Nos. 2, 3 and 4).

2. Addi­tion­al con­di­tions are recom­men­ded to address oth­er mater­i­al plan­ning con­sid­er­a­tions and ensure com­pli­ance with oth­er devel­op­ment plan policies. They have been informed by the rel­ev­ant con­sul­tee responses to this applic­a­tion, as repor­ted to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee on 25 April 2025.

Pro­posed conditions

1. Tak­ing into account the feed­back from con­sul­tees and the recom­men­ded con­di­tions in respect of flood­ing from Perth and Kinross Council’s flood team, the fol­low­ing con­di­tions and inform­at­ives are proposed:

2. The devel­op­ment to which this per­mis­sion relates must be begun not later than the expir­a­tion of three years begin­ning with the date on which the per­mis­sion is granted.

   Reas­on: The time lim­it con­di­tion is imposed in order to com­ply with the require­ments of sec­tion 58 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 as amended.

3. The devel­op­ment hereby approved shall be con­struc­ted to be flood resi­li­ent. The ware­house should be con­struc­ted on stilts or piers and elev­ated above the flood level with a min­im­um under­side of build­ing level of 147.70m AOD plus a min­im­um free­board of 300mm as recom­men­ded by the Flood Risk Assess­ment (FRA dated August 2024). Addi­tion­al recom­mend­a­tions in the FRA (and tech­nic­al addendum to the FRA dated Feb­ru­ary 2025) and Drain­age Impact Assess­ment (DIA) (dated Feb­ru­ary 2024) should be imple­men­ted to ensure that there is dry access and egress from the build­ing to out­with the flood risk area. A new design plan (includ­ing elev­a­tions) which includes the recom­mend­a­tions should be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Perth & Kinross Coun­cil pri­or to com­mence­ment of development.

   Reas­on: To reduce the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of the devel­op­ment and its risk of flood­ing in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 22: Flood risk and water man­age­ment and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

4. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a Flood Action Plan has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Perth and Kinross Council’s Struc­tures and Flood­ing Sec­tion. This should detail access and egress arrange­ments dur­ing a flood­ing event (as recom­men­ded in the FRA).

   Reas­on: To reduce the vul­ner­ab­il­ity of the devel­op­ment and its risk of flood­ing in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 22: Flood Risk and water man­age­ment and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

5. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a detailed sus­tain­able drain­age sys­tem (SuDS) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Perth and Kinross Council’s Struc­tures and Flood­ing Sec­tion and SEPA where neces­sary. The scheme shall be developed in accord­ance with the tech­nic­al guid­ance con­tained in The SuDS Manu­al (C753) and the Council’s Flood Risk and Flood Risk Assess­ments Developer Guid­ance and shall incor­por­ate source con­trol. All works shall be car­ried out in accord­ance with the agreed scheme and be oper­a­tion­al pri­or to the bring­ing into use of the devel­op­ment. The applic­ant should note that the Coun­cil is likely to reject the sit­ing of any SuDS in a flood risk area.

   Reas­on: To ensure that sat­is­fact­ory arrange­ments for the dis­pos­al of sur­face water are provided in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 22 (part c ii): Flood risk and water man­age­ment and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

6. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a detailed site-spe­cif­ic Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan (CEMP) has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with SEPA and Perth and Kinross Council’s Struc­tures and Flood­ing Sec­tion. All works car­ried out dur­ing con­struc­tion shall be under­taken strictly in accord­ance with the approved CEMP. The CEMP shall include but not be lim­ited to the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion: a) The approach to site pre­par­a­tion, soil man­age­ment, soil and veget­a­tion res­tor­a­tion and rein­state­ment. b) Con­struc­tion of SuDS. c) Ref­er­ence to pre-con­struc­tion eco­logy checks and sub­sequent spe­cies pro­tec­tion plans if required. d) A pro­gramme of works.

All con­struc­tion works on the site shall be car­ried out in strict accord­ance with the approved Con­struc­tion Envir­on­ment­al Man­age­ment Plan.

Reas­on: In the interests of pro­tect­ing the biod­iversity and the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age and Policy 10: Resources of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a Pol­lu­tion Pre­ven­tion Plan (PPP) to ensure the risk of pol­lu­tion from sed­i­ment or oth­er pol­lut­ants that may be released dur­ing con­struc­tion from enter­ing Bru­ar Water or the River Garry has been sub­mit­ted and agreed in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with Perth & Kinross Coun­cil. Devel­op­ment shall not pro­ceed oth­er than in strict accord­ance with the approved PPP.

   Reas­on: To pro­tect the water envir­on­ment and integ­rity of the River Tay SAC in accord­ance with Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Places of NPF4 and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al Her­it­age of CNP LDP 2021.

2. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until details of the pro­posed access align­ment and con­struc­tion spe­cific­a­tion, gen­er­ally as illus­trated on Han­nay McLar­en Archi­tects Draw­ing Nos. 2310.Lo3b and 2310.Lo5j have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land. There­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed access shall be con­struc­ted to the approved details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   Reas­on: In the interests of road and ped­es­tri­an safety to ensure there is appro­pri­ate safe access to and egress from the site in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

3. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until details of the pro­posed drain­age asso­ci­ated with the access road pro­pos­als are sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land. There­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed drain­age shall be con­struc­ted to the agreed details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. Note: There shall be no drain­age con­nec­tions to the trunk road drain­age system.

   Reas­on: To ensure that sur­face water drain­age is sat­is­fact­or­ily man­aged in the interests of road safety in accord­ance with policy NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able trans­port and Policy 10: Resources of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

4. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until details of the pro­posed sig­nage, Non-Motor­ised User arrange­ments, plus any stock fen­cing and gates, asso­ci­ated with the pro­posed access road pro­pos­als (where it over­laps with the access track from the B8079 to the under­bridge on the A9 which is part of the A9 Dualling pro­gramme), have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity, in con­sulta­tion with Trans­port Scot­land. There­after, and pri­or to occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment hereby per­mit­ted, the pro­posed access shall be con­struc­ted to the approved details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Authority.

   Reas­on: In the interests of motor­ised, non-motor­ised and ped­es­tri­an safety to ensure there is appro­pri­ate safe access and egress and to ensure there are no adverse impacts on the road net­work (spe­cific­ally the A9 dualling pro­gramme) in rela­tion to road safety in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able trans­port and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

5. Pri­or to the occu­pa­tion of any part of the devel­op­ment, a detailed design for the pro­posed secure covered cycle park­ing facil­ity for a min­im­um of 5 cycles shall be sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity in con­sulta­tion with the Roads Author­ity. The cycle park­ing shall be imple­men­ted strictly in accord­ance with the approved details to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or to the devel­op­ment being brought into use.

   Reas­on: To encour­age act­ive travel and meet advice with­in NPF4 Policy 13: Sus­tain­able Trans­port and Policy 3: Design and Place­mak­ing of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

6. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until a biod­iversity enhance­ment plan is sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. This shall include but not be lim­ited to the fol­low­ing inform­a­tion: a) Mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures com­pens­at­ing for loss of semi-improved grass­land; b) All meas­ures to enhance biod­iversity; c) A timeline for imple­ment­a­tion of those meas­ures iden­ti­fied; d) A mon­it­or­ing and main­ten­ance plan of those meas­ures implemented.

The meas­ures shall be imple­men­ted in advance of the devel­op­ment being occu­pied and maintained/​monitored through­out the life­time of the devel­op­ment, strictly in accord­ance with the approved details.

Reas­on: In the interests of pro­tect­ing the biod­iversity and the envir­on­ment in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an updated land­scap­ing plan com­pris­ing a scheme of hard and soft land­scap­ing works has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as plan­ning author­ity. Details of the scheme shall include, but not be lim­ited to:

   a) Exist­ing land­scape fea­tures and veget­a­tion to be retained; b) Pro­tec­tion meas­ures for the land­scape fea­tures to be retained; c) A sched­ule of screen plant­ing com­pris­ing spe­cies, plant sizes and pro­posed num­bers, dens­ity and loc­a­tions; d) The loc­a­tion, design and mater­i­als of all hard and soft land­scap­ing works; e) Details of any light­ing; f) A pro­gramme for the imple­ment­a­tion, com­ple­tion and sub­sequent man­age­ment of the pro­posed landscaping.

All devel­op­ment shall be com­pleted in accord­ance with the approved scheme of hard and soft land­scap­ing and man­age­ment pro­gramme before the end of the first full plant­ing sea­son fol­low­ing sub­stan­tial com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment. Any plant­ing which, with­in a peri­od of 5 years from the com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, in the opin­ion of the plan­ning author­ity is dying, being severely dam­aged or becom­ing ser­i­ously dis­eased, shall be replaced by plants of sim­il­ar size and spe­cies to those ori­gin­ally required to be planted.

Reas­on: To ensure the imple­ment­a­tion and man­age­ment of a sat­is­fact­ory scheme of land­scap­ing in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 3: Biod­iversity; Policy 6: Forestry, wood­lands and trees; Policy 14: Design, qual­ity and place; Policy 20: Blue and green infra­struc­ture and Policy 3: Design and place­mak­ing; Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age; Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until an updated Tree Sur­vey, Tree Pro­tec­tion Plan and Tree Impact Assess­ment has been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. Devel­op­ment must pro­ceed in strict accord­ance with the stated plans and ensure that the pro­tect­ive bar­ri­ers are installed pri­or to any works com­men­cing on site.

Reas­on: To min­im­ise loss of and dam­age to trees in accord­ance with NPF4 Policy 6: Forestry, wood­land and trees and Policy 4: Nat­ur­al her­it­age and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

Inform­at­ives

1. The per­son under­tak­ing the devel­op­ment is required to give the Plan­ning Author­ity pri­or writ­ten noti­fic­a­tion of the date on which it is inten­ded to com­mence the devel­op­ment. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Ini­ti­ation of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this inform­a­tion assists the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mon­it­or­ing act­ive work with­in the area to ensure com­pli­ance with the approved details and to identi­fy and cor­rect any poten­tial prob­lems, as they arise, rather than later when it may be more dif­fi­cult and more costly to rec­ti­fy. Fail­ure to give notice would con­sti­tute a breach of plan­ning con­trol which may res­ult in enforce­ment action being taken.

2. Fol­low­ing com­ple­tion of the devel­op­ment, a noti­fic­a­tion of the com­ple­tion shall, as soon as prac­tic­able, be giv­en to the Plan­ning Author­ity. Attached to this decision notice is a Notice of Com­ple­tion of Devel­op­ment for com­ple­tion and sub­mis­sion. Sub­mis­sion of this form will assist the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Mon­it­or­ing and Enforce­ment Officer in mak­ing a final inspec­tion and check­ing com­pli­ance with the approved draw­ings and con­di­tions. If the devel­op­ment hereby approved is to be car­ried out in phases, then a notice of com­ple­tion should be sub­mit­ted at the com­ple­tion of each phase.

3. The applic­ants should sub­mit a form­al con­nec­tion applic­a­tion to Scot­tish Water fol­low­ing the grant­ing of plan­ning per­mis­sion for review of the avail­ab­il­ity of capa­city. They will also require to con­tact Scot­tish Water’s Assets Impact Team with regard to any Scot­tish Water infra­struc­ture on the applic­a­tion site.

4. The applic­ant is advised to refer to Perth & Kinross Council’s Sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance on Flood Risk and Flood Risk Assess­ments 2021 as it con­tains advice rel­ev­ant to your development.

Next steps

1. In accord­ance with the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Noti­fic­a­tion of Applic­a­tions) (Scot­land) Dir­ec­tion 2009, the Park Author­ity is required to noti­fy Scot­tish Min­is­ters if it pro­poses to grant plan­ning per­mis­sion for a devel­op­ment which is sub­ject to an out­stand­ing objec­tion from SEPA on flood risk grounds. Sub­ject to the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee agree­ing the con­di­tions set out above, this plan­ning applic­a­tion will there­fore be referred to Scot­tish Min­is­ters who may decide to call-in the applic­a­tion for their own determ­in­a­tion. The Com­mit­tee will be updated of the out­come in due course.

Katie Crerar katiecrerar@​cairngroms.​co.​uk